TWENTY SIX.
❛ THE LOST GIRLS. ❜

              Hearing from a bunch of blabbering gossip girls that Cheryl Blossom had 'confessed to Jason's murder' was not the ideal way to find out your girlfriend was arrested. But then again, what was the ideal way?

          Truth be told, Lexi had always thoguhts she'd be the one to be arrested and Cheryl would be the one on the outside.

          Of course, the first thought that ran through Lexi's head wasn't to go visit Cheryl. It was to get Lydia and Toni and break her out. But the more racial side of her told her that was a stupid idea. What was even stupidier was showing up at the Sheriff's department and waiting for Cheryl's release because there was no doubt in Lexi's mind that Clifford and Penelope would be there as soon as they heard the news. Lexi was pretty sure Cheryl didn't need her parents finding out about them which is why she didn't do any of those things.

          For once Lexi was behaving. She had to stick by her decision to become a better sister to Toby by staying out of trouble. The only problem was Lexi was a troublemaker and playing along with the good girl act was killing her — doing nothing was killing her.

          She'd had to wait until Cheryl appeared back in school the next day to get an answer off the girl for a question that had burned itself into her mind since the news of Cheryl's arrest.

          "Are you okay?"

          Cheryl smiled at the sight of worry plastered all over Lexi's face. The brunette was the epitome of an anxious girlfriend — something Cheryl found she could get used to. "I'm fine, Lex. I told the truth."

          There was another question swarming in Lexi's eyes, but it was one she didn't want to voice in case Cheryl took it the wrong way. Rolling her eyes, Cheryl answered it anyway, "I didn't mention you, don't worry."

          "Sorry," Lexi sighed, running a hand over her face. "I don't want to be the bad guy but I can't get arrested. They could take away Toby's custody of me and Cole."

          "I get it," Cheryl smiled, lacing her hand with Lexi's before letting go in case someone saw. "But, uh, there is one thing I have to ask."

          "Shoot," Lexi's signature smirk came back onto her face but it didn't ease the frown that had come onto Cheryl's.

          "Did-" the redhead sighed, forcing the words out, "Did Jason mention anything to you before he left? Like was there anything he told you that he didn't tell me?"

          Lexi's smirk dropped. In that moment, Lexi had two choices; to lie to her girlfriend and honour her promise to the dead, or to reveal Jason's secrets when he had specifically kept them a secret for good reason. "No," she lied straight through her teeth. "Everything I know, you know."

          Cheryl watched the reassuring smile spread across the brunette's lips and she let her shoulders sink in relief. A grin appeared on her cherry red lips as she excused herself, "Well, I have to go thank a certain strawberry favoured quarterback for backing my story and saving me from being the little girl who cried wolf."

          "Alright, I'll catch you later." Lexi nodded, letting her eyes follow her girlfriend as she walked away.

          A single thought playing on repeat in her head. You owe me big time, Jason.

          Betty looked up once Veronica arrived and quickly began her report, "I started asking around, to see if what happened to you happened to anyone else, and if anyone would go on record."

          "I will," Ethel nodded, swallowing her fear. "100%."

          "Okay. It's five guys on the football team. Chuck and his posse. Ethel was about to tell us..." Betty trailed off looking towards the girl to take over.

          "One day last year, Chuck and I talked in the library for 10 minutes. I helped him with a Pre-Cal problem, and nothing happened. But the next day, he... He started telling people that I let him do stuff to me. Like, sex stuff. And then he," she paused, "Or one of his goons, wrote, 'sloppy seconds' on my locker."

          "Yes, yes," Cheryl interrupted as she leaned on the doorway, peering into their little meeting neither she, nor Lexi seemed to have been invited to. "We've all heard your tragic origin story."

          "I'm so, so sorry, Ethel." Betty comforted the girl by placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. "That's horrible."

          "Not as horrible as being a suspect in your own brother's torture-murder case," Cheryl stepped in, an unexpected anger written over her face. "But we all have our crosses. In the meantime, River Vixen practice starts in five minutes, sluts, so..."

          "They're ruining our lives," Ethel accused, emotions fighting their way to the surface as she held back tears. "And to them it's just a game. They keep score and—"

          "Wait," Veronica frowned, "What do you mean, 'keep score'?"

          "Each conquest earns them points. They keep track in some secret playbook," Ethel informed.

          "Okay, we have to talk to Weatherbee!" Betty exclaimed in protest.

          "I already tried," Ethel shook her head. "Weatherbee said that he didn't find anything."

          "Okay, we need undeniable proof."

          "Proof of what, Nancy Drew?" Cheryl mocked her, a scoff leaving her red coated lips. "That boys will be boys? And that playbook reeks of suburban legend."

          "How would you know, Cheryl?" Veronica snapped.

          "Because, Frida Shallow, before he died, my brother was co-captain of the football team with Chuck, and Jason never mentioned it, and he never would've allowed it," Cheryl informed the detective posse.

          "Okay, well, I never met your brother, but I'm not lying about what happened to me. And Ethel's not lying. And proof or no proof, book or no book, I am going scorched earth on these privileged, despicable miscreants. You wanna get caught in that backdraft, Cheryl? Call me, or any of these," Veronica looked back to gesture to each of the girls in the room, "—beautiful, young, strong, intelligent women, 'slut' one more time."

          Cheryl crossed her arms over her chest and felt a tiny smirk play on her lips. There was only one person Cheryl let get away with talking to her like that and it was Lexi. But it seemed Veronica did have a knack for doing the unexpected.

          After the meeting disembarked, Veronica and Betty began their trek towards the gymnasium where cheer practice was due to start. Once she was certain no one would hear her, Betty turned towards Veronica and grabbed her arm to stop her. "There's one more thing I found out when I was doing my research."

          Veronica's eyes widened. "What is it?"

          Betty swallowed her discomfort at the fact she had to dish out a couple of trusted secrets in order to explain what she'd found out. "Lexi and Chuck dated two years ago and last year, when she found out he'd been cheating on her, she came up with this revenge plan with Jason. When he was coming out of the cafeteria, Archie and Reggie covered him in maple syrup and Lexi threw a handful of feathers on him."

          "Remind me not to get on her bad side," Veronica frowned; she could only imagine how hards it must have been to get rid of that sticky mess.

          "Veronica, don't you get it?" Betty gave her a pointed look to which the brunette shook her head. "Chuck only started spreading rumours about the girls he dated after what Lexi did to him. She's the reason 'the sticky maple' tag exists."

A gasp escaped Veronica's mouth at the new information. "What do we do? Do we tell her?"

"I don't know," Betty scrunched up her face in stress and confusion. "I don't think she even knows about what Chuck has been doing."

Honestly, Betty didn't know what to do. Lexi had been one of her closest friends over the past year and a half. Talking about her like this felt like Betty was betraying her in some way. Admittedly, she had just told Veronica the truth about Lexi' relationship with Chuck, something she had trusted a select few to tell the whole truth to — Betty having been one of them.

"How could she not know?" Veronica countered. "It was like the number one top trending trends in this god forsaken town. Unless she doesn't own a phone or has been living under a rock for the past year."

"But if she knows—"

"Then she's consciously doing nothing about it," Veronica confirmed, watching a crestfallen expression fall over Betty. "— which means we have to."